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Today is Christmas in Armenia, and the Armenians claim it is the original date of Christ's birth. It is also the Twelfth Day of Christmas, for those who actually celebrate all twelve. Today is also Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, in countries where they celebrate that, as in Latin America.

I really love Christmas-related history, so that's why the focus on that ;)

1492: Columbus sails the ocean blue. Due to inaccurate calculations, his fleet sails right past Cuba without ever spotting it or another landmass in the Americas. They all eventually die of starvation/thirst.

1732: The Inca and Aztec cultures make first contact. The Aztecs give the Incans their writing system, while the Incans give the Aztecs llamas.

1767: Spanish pirates land on the shores of Newfoundland, and are the first Old Worlders to successfully reach the New World.

1859: Alfred Russel Wallace publishes his book on the theory of evolution before Charles Darwin can publish his. As a result, Darwin becomes a footnote in history, and Young Earth Creationism never comes to exist.

Today is Christmas...again! The Russian Orthodox Church still follows the Julian Calendar, in spite of the fact that Russia itself follows the Gregorian Calendar. The Julian Calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian. Thus, to us it is January 7, but to the Russian Orthodox Church (as far as celebrations are concerned), it is December 25th. So for the third time in two weeks, Merry Christmas!

Correction. It was the huge earthquake that did it. It shook the entire south east of the island. Roughly 60 thousand people died between friday 9th and sunday 11th. Cities were abandoned, I've visited the ruins of the ancient town of Noto, I've been there twice now. It is bone chilling to walk among those rocks and think that just a few centuries ago people used to live there.

On the other hand, we owe to the earthquake a magnificent collection of baroque art, mostly churches.

Although there are reports of an eruption at the time of the earthquake, most sources suggest that the volcano had been inactive since the destructive eruption of 1669. Analysis of the relationship between eruptions and earthquakes has found that earthquakes are followed by long periods without activity in the 'rift zones' that extend out to north and south from the summit. Estimates of coulomb stress transfer due to the dyke intrusion in the rift zones associated with the 1669 eruption, suggest that this could have helped to trigger the 1693 earthquake, by increasing stress levels on the faults.

Anyway, the event passed on to history as "The 1693 Earthquake" because that's what caused death and destruction. There was a bloody tsunami, too.

Etna coughs and sputters all of the bloody time, in fact it could be erupting as we speak and we wouldn't notice. Our main concern is the ashes. I've swept black dirt out of my garage lord knows how many times.

Etna coughs and sputters all of the bloody time, in fact it could be erupting as we speak and we wouldn't notice. Our main concern is the ashes. I've swept black dirt out of my garage lord knows how many times.